Taekwondo Terminology

Taekwondo Terminology

A Summary of Korean Terminology for TaeKwonDo

Definition of TaeKwonDo

"Tae" means "foot" or "to strike with the feet". "Kwon"
means "hand", or "to strike with the hand". "Do" means
discipline, art, or way. Hence TaeKwonDo (foot-hand-way) means
literally "the art of the feet and the hands" or "the art of kicking and
punching". Different schools and/or styles may impose different
variations on the formal definition however. For example, some styles
add the words "self defense" to the literal definition and/or throw in
some form of the phrase "physical and mental training".

Korean Counting

There are two different numbering systems that are used by Koreans. The
first numbering system is used when counting, or when only speaking of
the numbers themselves. The first ten numbers in this system are as
follows:

1

:

hanah

2

:

dool

3

:

set

4

:

net

5

:

dasot

6

:

yasot

7

:

ilgop

8

:

yadol

9

:

ahop

10

:

yool

The stress in "hanah", "dasot", and "yasot" is on
the first syllable, in "ilgop", "yadol", and "ahop"
on the second. In counting cadence in TaeKwonDo, this is so emphasized
that the other syllable frequently almost disappears (e.g.,
"han", "das", "yos", "lgop", "hop",
etc.).

The other numbering system (which is of Chinese origin) is used in most
other cases and is often used where Americans would use ordinal numbers
(such as "first", "second", etc ...). For example, this second numbering
system is used when describing a person's rank: a first degree black
belt would be an "il dan". The first ten numbers in this
numbering system are as follows:

1

:

il

2

:

ee

3

:

sahm

4

:

sah

5

:

oh

6

:

ryook

7

:

chil

8

:

pal

9

:

koo

10

:

ship

The final `l' in "chil" and "pal" isn't rounded, like an
American `l' .... It's a much shorter sound, sort of like the initial
`l' in "let", but even shorter. It's not like the `l' in "ball".

When pronouncing the word "ship", you must not
emphasize the "sh" sound. It's almost more like "sip" with a
sort of a lisp. If you pronounce it like "sh" in "shell", then you are
referring to sexual intercourse.

Even though this second numbering system may correspond to ordinal
numbers in English in some cases, these are not ordinal numbers.
Koreans use a separate set of words for ordinal numbers.